The C. Everett Koop Papers

In this portrait Dr. Koop wears his formal uniform and sits in front of the American flag and the flag of the U.S. Public
Health Service. Koop was the first U.S. Surgeon General in a generation to wear the Surgeon General's uniform, a uniform
akin to that of a rear admiral of the Navy. He thought that wearing the uniform would help to restore morale and a sense of
dignity to the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, which the Surgeon General commands and which had been
buffered by personnel cuts and uncertainty about its mission in the late 1970s and early 1980s.